FRIHUMSAM allocations: NOK 249 million to 31 research projects

The results for Researcher Projects, Young Research Talents, FRIPRO Mobility Grants and Support for Events are now ready. The Granting Committee for the Humanities and Social Sciences (FRIHUMSAM) has awarded NOK 249 million to 31 research projects and 2.7 million to 17 events. The final results for FRIPRO Toppforsk will be available in January/February.

All projects that are awarded funding will start during 2018. The research projects (Researcher Projects, Young Research Talents and FRIPRO Mobility Grants) each have a budget between NOK 3 and 10 million, and a project duration of three to four years. With this allocation, 8,4 % of the applied budget and 8,7 % of the number of proposals for research projects is granted. The events will be carried out during 2018, and all 17 applications are granted.

In addition, approximately NOK 500 million will be awarded to approximately 20 FRIPRO Toppforsk projects within the joint funding initiative, called "Fellesløft III, trinn 2". The amount will be divided between the three FRIPRO activities.

Processed and awarded applications
The FRIHUMSAM Granting Committee processed 355 applications for Researcher Projects, Young Research Talents and FRIPRO Mobility Grants, with a total applied amount of NOK 2.97 billion. The Committee granted 31 applications. The table below shows the distribution of application types and male and female project managers.

Application type

Number of applications processed

Applications granted

tot.

female

male

tot.

female

male

no.

%

no.

%

no.

%

Researcher Projects

225

102

123

16

7,1

7

6,9

9

7,3

Young Research Talents

108

57

51

11

10

8

14

3

5,9

Mobility Grants

22

14

8

4

18

3

21

1

13

Total

355

173

182

31

8,7

18

10

13

7,1

FRIPRO Toppforsk
FRIHUMSAM received 38 applications for FRIPRO Toppforsk. The universities have been sent application documents and assessments for all FRIPRO Toppforsk applications qualified for funding, that is applications that received an overall mark of 6 or 7. During December, the universities will inform the Research Council which projects they wish to fund. Applications qualified for funding submitted by other research institutions have been ranked by the Granting Committees, and relevant institutions will be offered the opportunity of cofunding the applications through the joint funding initiative. Based on responses from the institutions, the Granting Committees will make a final decision in January/February 2018.

All FRIPRO Toppforsk applications not qualified for funding have been denied by the Granting Committees.

Application responses
Letters of funding or rejection will be available on My RCN web during the next few weeks, together with the expert panel assessments. For FRIPRO Toppforsk applications that are still being processed, letters will be available after the Granting Committee makes their final decision in January/February 2018.

The application review process
Applications for Researcher Projects, Young Research Talents, FRIPRO Mobility Grants and FRIPRO Toppforsk have been assessed by one out of eighteen international expert panels. Each panel also ranked the best applications – the ones that received an overall mark of 6 or 7. In reality, only applications that received an overall mark of 6 or 7 were relevant for funding.

The project managers for the Young Research Talents applications that received both one of the highest marks, and were in the top ranking according to the panels' decisions, were interviewed by the Granting Committee.

In their final selection of applications for funding, the Granting Committee based their decision on the panels' assessments and ranking, with special consideration of the scientific quality and boldness in scientific thinking and innovation. The Committee also considered other guidelines described in the call for proposals.

For the Young Research Talents, the interviews were also used as a basis for the decision making. The purpose of the interviews was to get a better grasp on the project managers' scientific independence and maturity, as well as their potential as research leaders.

The distribution of marks was as follows for the application types Researcher Projects, Young Research Talents, FRIPRO Mobility Grants and FRIPRO Toppforsk:

30 % of applications for Researcher Projects, Young Research Talents and FRIPRO Mobility Grants received an overall mark of 6 or 7. Among these, 29 % were funded within FRIHUMSAM's budget.